Classics Illustrated’s ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ comic book

I keep bumping into intriguing comic books at my favorite auction houses. Some seem to force themselves into my path, while others wait for me to stumble across them while I’m plying through papers and other ephemera.

That was the case recently when I was going through what appeared to be a box of junk pamphlets in the back room at an auction house. On top was what my auction buddy Janet calls “guy stuff”: an auto parts tune-up guide, a buyers gallery of fine automobiles (and they were gorgeous – Porsche, Viper, Rolls, Bentley, Jaguar) and Scholastic magazines.

Hidden beneath was a Classics Illustrated comic book-adaptation of Homer’s “The Iliad,” which I remembered from literature class back in school. Who doesn’t recall it as a snoozer in its original form. But as a comic book? Now, that could have made a difference.

Then I came to the prize: “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” by Harriet Beecher Stowe as a comic book.

The prominent face on the cover art looked to be the actor Brock Peters as Tom, I presume, trying to escape a slave hunter carrying a shotgun and guiding three tracking dogs. In my research, I could not find Peters appearing in any movie or other version of the novel. And the story in the comic book makes no mention of Tom escaping from a plantation.

The comic book was No. 15, sold for 15 cents, and inside had a publication date of July 1944. That date didn’t coincide with the history that I later found about Classics Illustrated.

“The Iliad” comic book (#77) had a publication date of November 1950, and the cover showed warriors in a chariot.

Classics Illustrated appears to be immensely popular. I found tons of sites on the web that sold the books and offered information about its history.

The series was started in 1941 by Albert Kanter as Classics Comics with the publication of Alexandre Dumas’ “The Three Musketeers.” Kanter basically adapted the beloved classics to comic-book form. He also completed “Ivanhoe” and “The Count of Monte Cristo.” 

A year later, he struck out on his own, producing other titles as well as reprints of the previous comics. In 1947, the series’ name was changed to Classics Illustrated, and it produced new titles until 1962 and continued to publish reprints. There were also spin-offs: Classics Illustrated Junior, Special Issues and The World Around Us.

The company stopped publishing in 1971, but others took to making reprints. The last comic book it produced was #169 “Negro Americans – the Early Years.”

One writer, who devoured the books as a child, noted that the comic books stirred controversy because some feared that they deterred children from actually reading the real classics – even though the books exhorted them to not “miss the added enjoyment of reading the original, obtainable at your school or public library.”

Both of the comic books I got at auction had some wear but were in pretty good condition. I paid $6 for the lot and was able to find out some information about my “Uncle Tom’s Cabinet,” an early hard-back copy of which I had picked up at another auction. The comic book is worth from $2 to $24, according to one site.

The original first edition #15 – like the earliest comic books – had line-drawn covers that were replaced with painted covers in 1951 (#81). The price went from 10 cents to 15 cents.

The date on the inside cover of my copy was July 1944. I found a similar copy on another site that described it as a reprint from 1967. Another site had a similar book with a date of 1954 that was a part of someone’s collection. It’s possible they all were reprints from various times. There was also a third cover drawing for the book.

The original and reprint drawings were done by artist Rolland H. Livingstone. The Iliad was illustrated by artist Alex Blum, who drew for Classics Illustrated from1941-1971. Each of my comics book ended with biographies on the authors.

Classics Illustrated was a new “find” for me; I had not heard of this series before. If you have copies and would like to find out what they’re worth, there are plenty of websites to help. One site offered suggestions on ways to identify your comic book, another ran a list of all 169 covers, and yet another supplied a Q&A to help you out. There’s even a system – which can seem a bit complicated – for determining value.

Someone was selling a full set of 169 issues on eBay for $1,500, but there were no takers. I also found 27 copies selling for $350.

Read about the other comic books I’ve encountered: manga, or Japanese comic books, and a Christian comic book about a man named Tom Skinner.